Answer ... Pursuant to the Arbitration Law, an arbitration agreement must in all events be in writing. Nothing else is required to enter into an arbitration agreement if the dispute has not yet arisen (e.g where the parties agree on an arbitration clause that is embedded in their prime contract or agree on the same by reference). However, in the event of a submission agreement, in addition to being in writing, the Arbitration Law requires that it specify the matters that will be subject to arbitration; otherwise, the agreement will be void.

Answer ... The Arbitration Law explicitly refers to the notion of the separability of the arbitration agreement in Article 23.

Answer ... Seat: The Arbitration Law refers to the seat of arbitration in Article 28, which provides that the arbitral tribunal will have the power to determine the seat of arbitration taking into consideration the circumstances of the case and its convenience to the parties.

Language: The Arbitration Law in principle requires that the arbitration be:

• in Arabic unless the parties agree otherwise; or:
• in any another language or languages which may be determined by the arbitral tribunal (Article 29/1).

When deciding on the language, the tribunal will consider substantive criteria such as:

• the language of the contract and the documents exchanged between the parties with respect to the dispute;
• the language of the country selected by the parties as the seat; or
• the language of the country in which the contract was concluded.

The arbitral tribunal’s decision in this regard is binding.